Anyone ever find themselves scared of the weight, like from losing control or whatever? I'm starting to get my freeweight squats over 2 plates and it scares the sh*t out of me when I've got it on the shoulders. Same with benching, I find myself thinking about how much weight I have up. Any ideas on how to get past this besides just pushing through the sets?

I don't know if the following will work as I suffer from a similar affliction but thiis is my strategy for coping.
Build your deadlift, RDL, trapbar deadlift, farmer's walk, etc so you get used to working with weight higher than your squat. This should give you confidence since you will know you can handle the load. Do walkouts and 1/4 squats (with pins set just below the bar) with very heavy weights. This will get you used to having a heavy weight on your shoulders and the actual squat weight will seem lighter.
The same applies to the bench. Do heavy lockouts and presses off pins to get used to heavier loads than you're using.

I'm sure there are phycological tricks you can use but I don't know what works.

My legs feel like they could do 285-315lb squats but at 225x8 I stop because I worry I'm going to get caught seated down. My deadlifts are getting close to 350 now, my bench has been stuck at about 190-205 so I'm switching to dumbbells to change things up. I don't get soo scared of 80lb dumbbells as I do 200lbs coming down on my neck :) I guess I'm grateful I'm actually doing squats, as they used to scare me too much to do in the past. I think having a box under my butt helped me alot.

I'm pretty light and so it's not much of a feat for me to lift over my bodyweight on squats, deads and benches, and i get into thinking "Man this is like having one of me on each shoulder" and I get a bit scared thinking "can i really do this?" then i lift it like 10 times and it's like Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaa!!!!!

That's one reason doing sets of 3 are beneficial, gets you more confident with heavier weight.

I failed doing box squats, on the actual box, months ago and no one helped me. Just sat wedged between the bar and the box, unable to move (trying desperately not to fold in half. My bottle crashed for a while after that but I soon learned there's no room for fear. Get reliable spotters and the fear will go...

it's an ethos i think that applies to everything, not just lifting. If you're scared, just do it and you'll be less scared next time as your confidence grows.

Good point, but I'm not so sure. I'm scared of Moths. They're sick, furry and dusty, and sick. I don't mind anything else, but moths are, well, sick. Each time one flies in, I react with fury and swiftly end it's life, but it never gets any easier.

I've never understood why people like butterflies. They're really just a smartly dressed Moth. Loads of people pick them up, let them sit on their hands etc, but you never see that with Moths. Moths do seem more aggressive, though, they always manage to fly towards/into your face - it's the feeling of them that I hate. And the 'dustyness' of them. Butterflies tend to keep themselves to themselves, though.

Strange. I'm not a guy that bothers with insects and such, but Moths really make my skin crawl. I also don't really like killing things. With Spiders and things like that, I prefer to let them live, let nature take it's course. But with Moths, it's a battle for survival.

It's not quite a phobia, either, otherwise I think I would just run and hide. I have a friend with a real spider phobia. When I first met him I thought it was ridiculous, but when I actually saw him in the presence of a spider it wasn't nice, he actually becomes petrified, physically shaken, color drains from him etc. Yet, other insects don't bother him. Interesting....

And i don't mean to make fun of you KPj but a powerlifter scared of moths is a little bit funny...

HAHA. I know it's ridiculious, but just being honest. They freak me out, but I don't run from them, I kill them. I can't think of anything else that scares me! (honest lol) But I would rather not kill them, as I get older, I seem to become more sympothetic. Not like when your a boy, fear nothing and don't just kill these things, but capture them and torture them.

I'm scared of flying, in fact I'm petrified, and it doesn't get any easier. I realise how much this contradicts my earlier post about just do it and it'll get easier.

I just don't believe in it. Hundreds of tons of metal taking off and flying about the place? I doubt it. I think it's all just a sick joke being played on humanity by God and one day all the planes'll fall out the sky and God'll be like "Seriously, i can't believe you guys fell for that!"

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